ceo, tim cook. forestall pushed out, a bit of a surprise, but that maps was a total debacle and fell right to his shoulders. i wasn't surprised by that, scott. >> see how the stock does when we open for trading tomorrow. that's it for us. power lunch begins now with more storm coverage. thank you very much. we start with breaking news on the markets. they will reopen tomorrow. >> indeed they will. and bob pisani is on the story, as he has been since the beginning of this storm event. bob what do we know at this point? >> the important thing is it's all systems go the words everybody has about wanting to hear. nyse and nasdaq, all of the exchanges under a lot of pressure right now. here is the statement we just got from the nyse. we are pleased to be able to return to normal trading tomorrow. our building and systems were not damaged and our people have been working diligently to ensure we have a smooth opening tomorrow. our thoughts remain with the families and communities suffering in the wake of this disaster. the important thing, nyse building and trading floor fully operational, those are the words that we wanted to hear.

no damages to the building. of course, all morning, meetings with the operations team to make sure that things are possible to get going. a lot of issues concerning connectivity, for example, can they get data in and out of the buildings, not just the nyse but the nasdaq, other exchanges as well. the important thing is the systems appear to be working now, the thing we were waiting for. nasdaq also says they are going to open as usual, bats says they are open as usual. don't have a statement from direct edge, i assume they are going to be opening as usual. this is looking more like good news. now, this is coming a little earlier than i had anticipated. >> right. >> because remember, there are some things they don't control like, for example, the ver ripz system downtown, they don't have. there's no power downtown. they don't have necessarily control over the phone operation and the data systems that are going in there. they have been testing that all morning to make sure they can actually do it without any problems. apparently now, they figure they can do it. >> they can. >> this is very, very good news. >> fingers crossed indeed. >> by the way, can i just

mention, we are going to have duncan needer you aer, the ceoo stock exchange, will be with us momentarily and bring us up to date on the processes they use to determine. . he will be here in a few minutes. this is what parts of rhode island looked like this afternoon, a mess. a mess practically everywhere. counties trying to dry out today. power problems persist all through that region. >> n the east coast though. take a look at cleveland, ohio. ohio. you heard me right. that should give you an idea of just how huge this storm was. the damage spread all the way into the midwest. unprecedented, certainly. let's run through the numbers for you. 8 million homes are without power today from virginia up

through the east coast. 90% of homes on long island have no electricity. 27 deaths have been blamed on sandy you most in new york state. unfortunately, they do expect that number to go higher. buses in new york city are expected to start returning by 5 p.m. tonight. not the subways, however. some of the drains into manhattan have reopened. the d.c. metro system has limited service. schools will be closed for an unprecedented third day in a row in the new york city area, ty. >> our coverage, sue, is extensive this hour. on the agenda, more on how the markets are likely to fare when they reopen tomorrow. just heard bob say that duncan niederauer of the nyse will be our guest very shortly. plus the impact on next week's presidential election. an engineer on what went wrong involving that giant crane collapse in middown manhattan yesterday afternoon. let's head to southern manhattan, just a couple of blocks from the new york stock exchange. and we are going to check on the recovery efforts there. scott cone has been in battery

park city since the beginning of this storm, less than a five-minute walk from the nyse. scott, what's the latest? i would like to get your reaction to the fact that the exchange will open tomorrow, from what you see at your vantage point, how easy a task is that going to be? >> reporter: well, getting the exchange open is -- that shouldn't be a problem at all. we reported last night, we showed you how the exchange itself was high and dry. one of the things that the nyse has going for it is that it's not in an evacuation zone. plus, it didn't flood. it's a slightly different situation with the new york mercantile exchange, that is something we have been trying to get a handle on throughout this, because it is in that so-called zone a in the flood zone. we were by there earlier today. it looks to be high and dry. they have, of course, been trading their futures products electronically throughout. that hasn't been a problem. but the issue is getting the trading floor back up and

running and we are still waiting for word on whether that will open as well because so far, it is still in an evacuation zone. but as you can see, if you come back out to me live for a second, in this part of the evacuation zone, battery park, which is always a destination for tourists, is starting to returns to the normal self, a lot of people coming here to see what's been going on. now, if you come to new york as a tourist, you probably know the south street seaport, which is not far from here. we saw quite a bit of damage there, the shops, the tourist areas, at the south street seaport. that gives you a sense of what is going on in other parts of manhattan and why this is not going to be a typical morning when people come back here tomorrow. not far from the sea sport a subway station, the south street station, and mta officials are saying that at that station, the water not only came up over the tracks up to the platform, it was all the way up to the ceiling and that gives you a sense, that's the one line on the subway, that gives you a

sense of what they are dealing with mass transit in new york city. so, while they will get the market back up, which is important, getting people to where they need to go tomorrow, it is going to be a tough come mute, to say the least. back to you. >> scott, it is really an amazing scene there. we have seen pictures like these in tropical south florida and so forth, but never in a major metropolitan area like one of the big east coast cities like new york. we will keep watching those images throughout the day. 50 homes in one new york city neighborhood burned to the ground last night. this was the scene in a part of queens known as breezy point near the ocean. more than 170 firefighters were called to the scene. they had a very difficult time getting to that inferno. so far, it appears that only two people were injured. wnbc's jonathan vigliotti toured the scene an hour ago. >> as the water rose and the winds picked up, the fires began here on the rockaways, i'm

standing in front of what was a home. you can see the devastation that this fire caused here. in fact this area was once a neighborhood. take a look what the it looks like right now. completely destroyed by fire. you're looking at what once were homes, one, two, three. my eyes here, i can count probably a dozen homes here that went completely up in flames. firefighters, you can hear them right now as they continue to work on putting out fires. they do continue to grow here in this neighborhood. we have been driving around here the entire morning. and all we can do is just look as these fire crews try to get to these scenes. the water here, the floodwaters that swept in yesterday, made it incredibly difficult for these crews to get to them in time. right now, all these downed power lines and trees continue to make it very difficult for druse get to these homes and put these fires out. again, take a look at what we are talking about. i mean, this was a home, a two-story home, like many of the homes here, in some cases, looking at three-story homes.

right now, all that's remaining are their fireplaces, the brick chimneys, they survived. the wooden structure clearly did not. as far as the cleanup, this is really only the beginning. we were on the boardwalk earlier today. that boardwalk completely destroyed on the rockaways, the waves so strong, they literally ripped it up off of the beams there. we were told at one point by residents here that last night, as tide was at its highest, the bay here met the ocean. the entire area that we are standing in was under water up to six feet. the water obviously now receded and we are getting just a firsthand look of the destruction that has been caused here. and of course the destruction only continues as these fires clearly continue to burn. back to you. >> jonathan vigliotti, wnbc. it is amazing what the first responders were able to do, they were really impeded last night, as i was watching that story, by the floodwaters them couldn't get their equipment in to help. >> and of course, there was the

tree damage and the trees down in the streets, so many lives disrupted and will be for so many days, which is why we are going to follow this story for you till its completion. meantime, new york governor andrew cuomo says that jfk airport in new york may open as early as tomorrow, not laguardia airport, however. for the airlines, this has been a scramble to say the least. phil lebeau tracking that part of the story from atlanta at one of the world's busiest airports. phil, over to you. >> reporter: sue, an airport where there are nine flights i'm looking at on the board scheduled to go to new york, all marked canceled. why are they cancelled? because the new york airports are not reopened yesterday. here's what new york mayor michael bloomberg had to say about the state of the airports within the last couple of hours. >> all major airports serving the metro area are closed today. runways are flooded and there are no flights leaving or arising. how much damage was done to the navigationed equipment and lighting around them, we don't

know yet. >> reporter: how many flights are affected? about 1 thousand for each of the airports. a little over 3,000 all together. that's why the airports in new york, that's the big bottleneck in the system right now. but when you look at the rest of the east coast, things are slowly starting to get back to normal. other airlines adding flights into other city washington, d.c., boston, philadelphia, those airports are all reopened. all together though the total number of cancellations because of sandy you, 16,000 not clear e will hit the snow mag getting mark of 24,000 canceled flights. we will seeks sended closures here for newark -- newark, laguardia and jfk, today and possibly into tomorrow.

pcge reporting the largest outage in their history. that will give you a little bit of the scope. let's get the forecast now, i mention we had still have strong winds on and off outside our studio here. >> today, the winds aloft are reaching near the ground level, it is mixing things up worse than would you think from the storm center which has weakened so considerably. here is basically where the storm has stalled, over south central pennsylvania and that's important because it continues to rain but also because it's producing now some snow. the area of white you are see right here over west virginia, back into ohio, is snow and it's accumulating snow at the higher elevations. in ohio earlier, places like cincinnati and columbus and points south and east, all the way into eastern kentucky were starting to accumulate but not a big deal until you get into the

higher elevations. now, once again, what we have right now, is the storm center stalled. notice i showed the circulation around the storm counter clock wise. and that is causing winds to come up from the south in the new york metropolitan area and the east coast and places where there are a lot of dangling limbs. even though we are not seeing super strong winds at this time, the gusts of 30, 40, 50 miles a hour isolated still causing some additional problems. things will continue to get better from here though. the high tide tonight is not high as it was this morning. i think we are really getting out of the woods in the next few hours, in fact. start seeing significant improvement. >> that's good news. good news, todd. speaking of good news, you had a fortunate experience. >> i had good luck. >> luck of the irish. >> i had good luck. after the snowmageddon of last october, i convinced my husband to buy a large generator for the house. >> and so? >> and so, at this point, you know, it's august, i keep saying

to him, nagging him, actually, to get it in, get it in, get it inspected. they put it online last week. >> ten days ago -- >> ten days ago. >> you went online with your generator. >> somebody was smiling on me. >> you had a houseful? >> aid houseful of neighbors and friends and relatives, but you know what, that's what you do. >> one of the earlier storms a couple years ago, you had gone several days without power. wind storm. >> montclair, as had you. >> tremendous tree damage. that's the big thing in our area of new york city and the new york metropolitan area. lots of old, mature -- >> they are beautiful but they can be very dangerous. >> but they can't stand up to 70, 80-mile-an-hour winds. >> no. when we come back that crane, speaking of things that can't stand up to 80-mile-an-hour winds, dangling above midtown manhattan it might look frightening but did everything actually go as planned? look at this thing come over just like that. you have to say that is probably the way the thing was designed

to work. >> maybe so that is coming up next. we are going to look at how they will remedy that situation. plus, the disaster one insurance executive is comparing sandy to. before the break, loath look at this video, parts of the famous fun town pier in seaside heig height, new jersey, washed away. this video, parts of the famous fun town pier in seaside height, new jersey, washed away.

with at the height of the storm last night, there was a dramatic evacuation from one of new york city's biggest hospitals. more than 200 patients had to be sent to other hospitals due to a power outage and then the backup generator failed because of the tidal surge which knocked it out. early estimates indicate that insurance losses from hurricane sandy will be in the $20 billion range. blaze d'antoni is vice president at burns and wilcox, the nation's largest independent wholesale insurance broker. blaze worked through 15 hurricanes, including andrew and katrina. welcome, mr. dan tony. how do you think this storm is going to rank as compared with the biggest storm ever, which was katrina, in terms of insured losses, and andrew? >> well, katrina was an $80 billion insurance convenient, not take nothing consideration the economic impact as well.

and a much different type of storm. the biggest problem with sandy it is a densely populated area of the country. early on in the claims process, i believe that the estimates of $20 billion range could be close. then you also have to look at the economic impact with the new york stock exchange being closed for two days, quite a few petroleum refineries shutdown along the east coast that could have an effect, as you had in an earlier broadcast that the airlines -- >> talk me -- >> thousands of flights. >> let's say i'm a small business owner, i own a pizza shop on the jersey shore or i own a dry cleaner out in queens that was damaged, what typically is covered under my business policy that i carry and what suspect? if it's flooding is it covered? >> unfortunately, flooding is an additional coverage that has to be could purchased through a different program. the standard home uppers a

policy does not cover flood insurance, a major issue we had down here with katrina, people unfortunate lakers lot of times, don't read their insurance policies and they need to get with their -- >> that changes the map, does it not? a lot of these smaller companies and individuals, you niece are sitting there thinking that some of this coverage is gonna be taken care of, this vel to shell out a lot more money to rebuild. no doubt that will play a part, $20 billion range, a good portion of that will be uninsured losses and also uninsured losses on the commercial side, you talk about a pizzeria or a restaurant, do they have food spoilage coverage, with the power being out, maybe no direct physical damage done to the building, there is specialized coverage you can buy for that, for business interrunses to pay for your rerngts employee salaries before you get up and running.

>> thank you for joining us. an engineer specializing in cranes is going to talk us through why the crane exactly what you're watching right now, almost bend right in half. we are back in a moment. first though the aftermath in point pleasant, new jersey. governor chris christie calling you the damage unthinkable. the streets remain flooded. debris liters the beach. it could take months to clean it all up. >> look at the sand. >> i know. if you are one of the millions of men who have used androgel 1%, there's big news. presenting androgel 1.62%. both are used to treat men with low testosterone. androgel 1.62% is from the makers of the number one prescribed testosterone replacement therapy. it raises your testosterone levels, and... is concentrated, so you could use less gel. and with androgel 1.62%,

you can save on your monthly prescription. [ male announcer ] dosing and application sites between these products differ. women and children should avoid contact with application sites. discontinue androgel and call your doctor if you see unexpected signs of early puberty in a child, or, signs in a woman which may include changes in body hair or a large increase in acne, possibly due to accidental exposure. men with breast cancer or who have or might have prostate cancer, and women who are, or may become pregnant or are breast feeding should not use androgel. serious side effects include worsening of an enlarged prostate, possible increased risk of prostate cancer, lower sperm count, swelling of ankles, feet, or body, enlarged or painful breasts, problems breathing during sleep, and blood clots in the legs. tell your doctor about your medical conditions and medications, especially insulin, corticosteroids, or medicines to decrease blood clotting. talk to your doctor today about androgel 1.62% so you can use less gel. log on now to androgeloffer.com and you could pay as little as ten dollars a month for androgel 1.62%. what are you waiting for? this is big news.

governor of getting it done. you know how to dance... with a deadline. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. this is awesome. [ male announcer ] yes, it is, business pro. yes, it is. go national. go like a pro.

all right. take a look at that live picture that is a crepe atop a high rise atop one of new york's most expensive apartment buildings it remains dangling 1,000 feet above the heart of the city on west 57th street. now you can the question is as we continue to look at this live picture, you can see skies are still gray. could it come crashing down any moment? is it safe enough to send workers in to dismantle it? can they dismantle it? to answer the questions is jason trend nah with hedy southeast, provides cranes for major building projects. welcome, jason, nice to have you here. >> thank you for having me on. >> as you see these pictures,

what comes to mind? was the crane in the in the right mode, deactivation mode or active mode as far as you can tell? >> just from looking at the pictures and stuff on the internet, the cranes are designed to weathervane, go with the wind as opposed to against the wind. looking at the suf on the internet it is tough to tell. it looks like the boom has given way. so i mean, you niece lot of speculation and stuff like that. but right now, it is tough to testimony. >> did it do what it was supposed to do? we see it is collapsing there and dangling above west 57th street. is that what it is supposed to do when it is hit with high winds or not? >> the cranes are manufactured to withstand hurricane-force winds, from what i have been reading stuff on the internet said the wind was blowing probably 40 miles an hour down

on the ground, when you were up that high probably at least double that blowing 80 to 100 miles a hour up that tall. >> how do they get it down? can they get it down? how do they do it? >> i cannot answer that question. i'm not 100% sure. it is in a real peculiar situation right now, so i think the first thing that they would go in to do is tie back into the structure to give it additional support. >> let me put it this way, in normal circumstance when they complete the building and the crane is on the top, how do they get the crane down, dismap the it will and take it down physically or use a helicopter? >> they will take it down physically, it will come down, typically 20-foot sections, the crane can disman the itself it is called top climbing, you top climb the machine down to the ground where you can get to a certain height, have an assist crane or hydraulic crane come in and dismantle the process. >> obviously extremely dangerous work. jason, thank you vet. we appreciate your perspective on that. >> yes, ma'am. thank you for your time. believe it or not the new

york city marathon is set for sunday and you it will go on, they say as scheduled. the course runs not far from where that crane is dangling. i find that unbelievable. >> a lot of percentage of course, come into new york from out of town. whether they can get here from overseas or around the country. >> a hotel room. >> get a hotel room. so many people have overnighted in the hotels. we are expecting to hear from the ceo of the new york exchange any time. >> and also, how prepared is the federal government to pay for all of this damage? wow. take a look at those waves. we are back in two minutes' time with more on "power lunch." so anyway, i've been to a lot of places. you know, i've helped a lot of people save a lot of money. but today...( sfx: loud noise of large metal object hitting the ground) things have been a little strange. (sfx: sound of piano smashing) roadrunner: meep meep. meep meep?

(sfx: loud thud sound) what a strange place. geico®. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. ♪ [ male announcer ] this is karen and jeremiah. they don't know it yet, but they're gonna fall in love, get married, have a couple of kids, [ children laughing ] move to the country, and live a long, happy life together where they almost never fight about money. [ dog barks ] because right after they get married, they'll find some retirement people who are paid on salary, not commission.

they'll get straightforward guidance and be able to focus on other things, like each other, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade.

bob pisani, a big interview with the head of the new york stock exchange with a big opening. bob, take it away. >> the important thing all systems are go, so far. new york stock exchange, nasdaq, everyone saying they are going to be open. joining us on the phone, duncan niederauer, ceo of the new york stock exchange. duncan, good afternoon. >> bob, how are you doing? >> terrific. so it's all systems go? can you walk us through what happened this morning?

you gave us an update yesterday. tell us how met with this morning and how you came to the conclusion everything was going to open as normal? >> yeah, sure thing, we appreciate you letting us be on again today, too. so, first of all, we had to make sure we got through the evening and that we got through last night's high tide and this morning's high tide in lower manhattan so we've had people on site throughout the evening. and we got the report this morning that there was no -- there was no issue with the building, it had not been compromised. once we heard that we had been operating under the assumption we would be open for normal business tomorrow. we cleared that with the regulators and city, state and federal officials so everyone was aware of what we were doing and most of today, so far today and the rest of the day will be spent and has been spent with customers as we test their connectivity and make sure that many of them who are operating from their own contingency sites that, you know, they can get to us, if it's business as usual for us tomorrow.

>> tell us about those connectivity issues, because it seems to me if there might be a problem, that's likely place for it. there's no power down there your backup generators are working as normal, i understand. but are you confident that there is power enough going into and out of the building, all the data that's going to go in and out will be functioning normally, number one? >> first of all, the data center obviously, which is offsite in new jersey, wasn't compromised at all. there was no flooding there so we are operating on full power there. that's where most of the clients have their connectivity to us and then to our matching enjoys. so we are not too worried about that. i think what we are most worried about, bob and working with the client and will continue to do throughout the day is since a lot of them are working from their own contingency sites, we want to make sure that their connectivity into our systems in the data center are working as planned, 'cause that's not something that is tested very frequently. so we are doing a lot of testing with all the customers for the

rest of today. so far, so good. but i don't think power downtown's going to be the issue. we are operating on the generator. the generators are -- give us plenty of capacity so downtown shouldn't be the problem either. >> mr. niederauer, how much if at all, do you coordinate your moves with your competitors, fellow exchanges and with your regulators at the s.e.c.? in other words, do you move alone or do you move in concert with them? >> as you would hope we would in a situation like this i think everything has to be done in concert, right? so there's been pretty regular dialogue, i have been very imp pressed with the degree of communication. we had calls throughout the day yesterday and have had some today and we will have more after i speak with all of you today with other exchanges, with representatives from i is. fma, looks after the broker, dealer he is and banks. the regulators are usually on those calls as well and then subsets of us will keep the regulators up to speed. so it is all entirely

coordinated so everybody is open and honest about what capacity everyone has and what capacity they don't have to so they can all work together to make sure it goes smoothly tomorrow. >> what is your sense, duncan, about the brokere er about the merrill lynches, the goldman is, a morgan stan his of the world, they are having their own meetings with their own people to determine who they can bring in and how many people they can v any sense of what is going on there? >> it's a little early to tell, bob. so the sense we are getting from all of them is that they will be ready to go tomorrow. they thought it was as important as we did that the markets be open tomorrow. so i'm not too worried about them being ready. i think they've been through this before. i think we will have a better sense of that, obviously, in the morning. we will be -- we will have people in overnight and we will have more of us coming in early tomorrow, so, if you will be on the floor tomorrow, i can give you a pretty early read on that tomorrow, too. >> duncan, how many floor brokers, how many people on the floor are you expecting to be able to get in and how many do you need to have in to make the

system work and will you be bringing them in tonight in anticipation of that? >> yeah, that's right. so we have some people in already. there are more on their way and more will be coming in tomorrow morning. we are providing transportation where necessary. we are providing assistance where necessary. in terms of our own employees, we have got all of our employees who we know we need to operate the market, either on their way in or there already 'cause the floor is up and running right now as we test everything today. and then in terms of the marketmaker community, we are in touch with all those folks. we are asking them to send us -- you know, there's a certain minimum that they need to have to make sure that we're functional. they are all going to exceed that minimum but we are also trying not to force everybody to come in if it is difficult for people to get there. >> may be difficult to ask for a postmortem on this, but is there anything you can think of that might have been done to help

facilitate know of this, any changes in your backup procedures, anything like that? >> the only thing i would say, bob, i hope after we get through that this week, i think it would be good for the industry to sit down with the regulators and for us to talk a lot more seriously about whether we need to make these contingency plans and the testing of the contingency plans more mandatory for everybody, because i think one of the things that happened this week is we are talking about something that hasn't happened in more than a quarter of a century and yes contingency plans in place and yes, i still farmly believe it was the right decision not to execute those plans because it would have meant that a lot more people would have been in harm's way if we tried operate the markets, even electronically on monday and tuesday, but i think one thing that's clear, we need to all sit down and just have a candid conversation about how seriously we need to take these contingency plans and whether we need to mandate testing and get

the regulators involved. something we can count on next week. >> jim cramer remark this morning these 100-year storms is happening every few years. certainly there is a need for that dunk, you will come on and update us as needed? >> i will and i will be in very early tomorrow morning, so bob, if you're there happy to sit with you guys tomorrow and then we will have a very good lay of the land early tomorrow morning. >> good luck, duncan, hope it goes smoothly. best of luck. >> see you tomorrow. >> see you, guys. >> an interesting halloween morning, won't it? >> as you say, it is important for them to open on this, the last day of the month, for a variety of reasons. >> yeah the important thing is there are a lot of people who have, their p and l statement, report to their investors on a monthly base is and tomorrow is the last day of the month, some people want the opportunity, traders, to sell losers, buy winners or whatever trading strategy they want to do the final day call it window dressing on some cases, whatever you want to say and some people, too, it is even the end of the year for some funds and even more important. >> mutual funds. that's true. and for the individual investor

to have confidence the system can function i think is very important. thank you, bob. >> see you later a. >> great work as always. as the storm heads north, millions of people remain without power, with officials warning that it could be days even weeks before electricity is fully restored. let go to mandy drury who has the very latest on the storm damage. >> hi there, it is a really good place to start. let's get you up to date on what is happening with the power situation, obviously, it is a really big concern for so many people out there. at this time, as far as we know, more than 8.5 million people remain without power. that number is changing. new york, new jersey, pennsylvania, all those states are very much hard hit. utility officials called the damage unpress depend and they do say it could be days or more before power is fully restored. as officials continue to survey the damage out there the other thing that is really clear here, guys it could be some time before mass transit is fully restored. i believe new jersey's park

commuter train service that connects new york city with new jersey is likely to remain suspended for at least a week up to ten days. water flooded many subway stations, in fact, some of them i believe right up to the ceiling and also flooding some of the tunnels. keep in mind it is not just removing the water. there are electric components here that have to be cleaned out, obviously, they keep it real safe, in some cases, those electrical components have to be cleaned offsite before the system can be fully restored and 5.3 million people approximately use that city's subway system on weekdays. every single day. 5.3 million people. so a lot of people have their travel plans and commutes really disrupted here. officials are saying the worst damage they have seen in 180 years. new york city schools also remain closed tomorrow because, obviously, a lot of people will not be able to get to their schools. now, here's some good news. as we have been saying, the nyse, the nasdaq, open tomorrow. governor cuomo told us jfk could

be up and running tomorrow as well, which would be very much welcomed news to all the people on the more than 15,000 flights that have been canceled and also many of the brims are beginning to reopen. so, let's hope we can get back to a modicum of normalcy. >> wouldn't that be nice, mandy? i hope you're right on that one. thank you very much. now, if hurricane winds and heavy flooding wasn't enough, super storm sandy also dumping mountains of snow in west virginia, pennsylvania and western maryland. janelle klein is in the aptly named snowshoe, west virginia, area with an update for us. janelle? >> reporter: sue, this san unexpected effect of hurricane sandy. certainly this storm was predicted but a lot of people would be surprised to know that the hurricane had this effect, causing a blizzard. the national weather service issuing a blizzard warning yesterday when this storm began, staying might be the only time it's ever done so as a direct result of a hurricane. it dumped up to two feet of snow in places here in west virginia,

shutdown many major roads and left thousands of people without power. thousands remain without power today, including heat, throughout the state of west virginia. the governor now declaring the entire state in a state of emergency, setting up shelters through various locations around the state to help people get through the emergency and national guard troops are on stand by to help as well. meanwhile, plows are out trying to get the roads back up. power companies out with their crews trying to restore power as quickly as possible, but's been made very difficult by the fact that the snow continues, the wind continues and, tyler, we do expect this storm to ton get worse as date goes on. >> janelle, thank you very much. stay warm. federal emergency management agency, feel as it is widely nope, is an organization often maligned for its slow response to major disasters this time around it is getting high marks from elected officials hit hard by sandy. eamon javers in washington now. >> reporter: hi, tyler, down here on the georgetown waterfront here in washington, d.c. behind me here, you can see a

very swollen potomac river, lots of debris in there, we have seen a couple of entire trees come by, but as for the federal government's response here in washington, d.c., we got some statistics from fema earlier today. they say they have plenty of money on hand. they have got $3.6 billion left in their contingency fund as of october 26th. they have spent some of that now, prepositioning generators in some of the hardest-hit areas so they got the material in advance but they say they have plenty of money left in the fund. now, president obama earlier today met with some of his top disaster officials, including the admin straighter of fema, mr. few gate, at the white house in the situation room, getting the latest there. federal officials telling us that they have the money they need now and they will be able to send that out to the states now that these disaster declarations have been made. here in washington, locally, the worst passed us by, a flooded potomac river it is still in its banks. that means the worst is over here. back to you guys.

>> thank you vet. super storm sandy slamming the east coast. we will talk about the impact on the gross domestic product and the retailer. this video just came in of atlantic city new jersey. sections of the famous boardwalk washed away, turned into stick and stones.

whether the. even the initial estimates for damage hurricane sandy are staggering they bound to go higher. what will sandy's long-term impact be? joining us once again is paul walsh, vice president of weather analytics for the weather

channel. what -- you have what he a chance to crunch some of these numbers. yesterday, we talked about retail. >> yep. >> today, you are taking a broader look what are you coming up with in terms of the impact? >> so i have been talking to some economists out there and sort of getting their senses, early days, of course, but chatted with mark zandi yesterday. they are estimating that binds the location where the storm hit, probably cost the is economy about $150 to $20 billion, $10 billion per day. wells fargo thinking it could be a .1 to .2% impact on q 4 gdp. >> now, there's the rebuilding, of course, which might offset some of that. >> yep. >> but that takes a while to be impacted and to be really factored into the equation, right? >> i talked to someone yesterday who is thinking we will see a benefit when we go into 2013 and 2014 increasing his growth estimates for 2013 and bringing down unemployment outlook based on the effects bound to happen

as the money starts to flow in and rebuild beyond the storm. >> yesterday, we talked a little bit about retail. do you have a different sense of things today or perhaps a more complete sense of what the impact's going to be on retailers? >> i think it's going to be really tough for november. it looks like the power outages that have happened are as bad as we expected, probably lose the first full week of november. that affects about 20% of the retailers in the u.s. so i would expect to see 2 or 3% decrease based on some reporting that citigroup is going to do same-store sales for november. >> wow. paul, thank you very much. appreciate it. >> all right. >> okay, back to you, ty. nearly 8.5 million people on the east coast without power now. the aftermath of the storm, what is the impact on retail sales? paul and sue just talked a little bit about it. is this pretty asch loss give than is one of the big weeks of sales outside of christmas, the prehalloween week? let's ask a member of forester research. you talked in some notes about what this could mean to

halloween sales, do you agree with paul that this could really just sort of wipe out this first week of november? >> well, i think that that could be a little bit of an exaggeration because truth is that retailers are pretty resilient there are going to be store closures and electricity and power issues that affect consumers but that primarily effects in our estimate, about anywhere from 10 to 15% of shoppers, the remaining shoppers it is usually business as usual. you may have some stores that are going to have to replace goods or have to do a little bit of damage control for anything affected by the storm, most companies, most retailers, the bulk of their business still happens nationally you there isn't going to be necessarily the big impact unless you happen to be a regional retailer based in the northeast, a place like a party city, which also happens to be very halloween focused. >> burt, let me talk to you. some stores that will be net winners and beneficiaries here

and some stores that will be net losers because sales just won't be made. take me through that. >> i just did a huge study of hurricane rita and katrina in new orleans home depot will be a big winner. tyler, food and drugstores will be a big winner. losers will be auto, apparel, consumer electronics, big-ticket items. so the ultimate economic impact, tyler, from the next few months to the next few years, between lost sales, lost wages, lost inventory, lost -- uninsured personal property will be $50 billion approaching $100 billion

based on what we've seep still in the aftermath of irene last year and katrina, rita and prior years, five years and 50 days ago. >> sue, burt, thank you very much. we have some fresh video we want to show you right now. thank you very much. >> indeed. some breaking news. and this just came into us. it's the first aerial pictures that we have. this is in from we believe the atlantic city, new jersey, region. it was video taken from a helicopter and if you look at that flooding, it shows you just how widespread the flooding is in that part of the garden state which, of course, was one of the hardest hit states and especially, ty, as you were mentioning yesterday and we were talking about, that south central part and the storm surge was unbelievable. in some cases, up to 14 feet. as you can see there are some buildings that are partially submerged at this point. and that looks like parked next a harbor, we are just seeing this now, as you guys are

certainly at home. look at the boats piled up. >> that maybe the marina right around where the borgata is on the marina, a couple of the other casinos are there and look at that. is that a dock or is that -- they have about pushed up onto dry land there? >> i think they have been pushed up, they are piled on top. a road, we are hearing. that will give you an idea of not amount extent of the damage but how long it is going to take for that water to recede and then after that water recedes, they can then go in and start some of the cleanup, but it is going to be some time. keep in mind here, it is still raining outside off and on and we still have a decent wind outside as well. so it's going to take a while for that water to recede. >> the reports are that up in of the casinos down there suffered really devastating damage. the boardwalk, by contrast, did. the casinos apparently run at a rate of about $5 million revenue a day, so you can imagine that

they lost so sunday, they lost yesterday and they are going to continue to lose some days of revenue. >> we will continue to get as many pictures in for you as we can. coming up, as tyler and i continue here, the impact sandy will have on the presidential election and the final days of campaigning. take a look at this the mta tweets a boat? yes, a boat was washed up on the metro north train tracks ins sinning, new york. that will tell you how high that river surge was. we are back in just a few moments. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 this morning, i'm going to trade in hong kong. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 after that, it's on to germany. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 then tonight, i'm trading 9500 miles away in japan. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 with the new global account from schwab, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 i hunt down opportunities around the world tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 as if i'm right there. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and i'm in total control because i can trade tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 directly online in 12 markets in their local currencies. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 i use their global research to get an edge. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 their equity ratings show me how schwab

tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 rates specific foreign stocks tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 based on things like fundamentals, momentum and risk. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and i also have access to independent tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 firms like ned davis research tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and economist intelligence unit. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 plus, i can talk to their global specialists 24/7. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and trade in my global account commission-free tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 through march 2013. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 best part... no jet lag. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 call 1-800-790-3801 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and a global specialist tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 will help you get started today.

bull a that money for fema spend, the storm enabling president obama to be the ceo and act presidential will that give his campaign potentially a boost? let's bring in john ar wood, our chief washington correspondent, who is at the white house. what is the to mood in the obama camp a week before the election, john? >> they have enough of an edge in the swing states, in particular, ohio, critical for mitt romney, enough to went election. they realize it is extremely close and realize they could lose it, but feel are fairly confident, at the white house they trying to as hard as they

can to focus and project that they are focusing on the storm before the run suggested, tyler, the president doing his job, praised by chris christie, the governor of new jersey, as he was earlier today for attending to the job. that can't hurt, i'm a little skeptical myself of it providing a big boost to his campaign because, he is, after all, doing his job so many voters locked in. i don't expect it to switch a lot of votes but certainly can't hurt for the president to be seen as being his job in a competent way. >> i guess the risk of a screwup would got other bay, it that happened it could be damaging. >> george w. bush found that out. george h. w. bush found that out in 1992 when hurricane andrew hit florida and seen as not doing that effectively. yes, a bad case scenario, worst case scenario it could hurt. not sure how great upside s more amazing video from the aftermath of this terrible storm

that coming up next. this just came in. have that after the break. stay with us. we will be right back. are we there yet?

are we there yet? are we there yet? [ male announcer ] it's the question we ask ourselves every day. is it the safest, the most efficient? the kind of vehicle to move not just people... but an industry forward? are we there yet? are we really? [ male announcer ] are we there yet? we are, for now. introducing the all-new seven passenger gl. motor trend's 2013 sport utility of the year. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing.

at legalzoom, we've created a better place to turn for your legal matters. maybe you want to incorporate a business you'd like to start. or protect your family with a will or living trust. legalzoom makes it easy with step-by-step help when completing your personalized document -- or you can even access an attorney to guide you along. with an "a" rating from the better business bureau legalzoom helps you get personalized and affordable legal protection. in most states, a legal plan attorney is available with every personalized document to answer any questions. get started at legalzoom.com today. and now you're protected.

these are fresh pictures coming in that is why they were jumpy, they are from an aircraft. the water comes in that is one thing, when the water leaves what it leaves behind in this case, sand. this is a location on the jersey shore, and you can see the massive amounts of muck that have been left behind as the waters receded. >> some of the houses almost completely underneath the sand there. some higher ones may be spared a little bit but the storm surge was so high and so pervasive in terms of its depths and ability to go onshore, evidenced by those pictures. >> here is what is remaining of water in atlantic city, new jersey. an area basically flooded out you can the ocean meeting the bind the marina there, you see hundreds of houses where people live year round. these are not just -- >> they are not vacation ho